Victor Hugo

"There is nothing like a dream to create the future."

- Victor Hugo, poet, playwright, novelist, statesman, human rights activist

Abraham Lincoln

"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

- Abraham Lincoln, former president of the USA

Willa Cather

"Where there is great love, there are always miracles"

- Willa Cather, author

Confucius

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."

- Confucius, philosopher and social reformer

William E. Gladstone

"Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and laboured a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world."

- William E. Gladstone, former British Prime Minister

Kin Hubbard

"Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit."

- Kin Hubbard, cartoonist, humourist, journalist

Alexi Murdoch

"My salvation lies in your love."

- Alexi Murdoch, "Orange Sky"

Epicurus

"Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for."

- Epicurus, ancient Greek philosopher

Henri Bergson

"To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."

- Henri Bergson, philosopher

Georg C. Lichtenberg

"One's first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one's last is to come to terms with everything."

- Georg C. Lichtenberg, scientist and satirist

Rumi

"Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it"

- Rumi, 13th century poet, theologian and mystic

Anne-Sophie Swetchine

"How easy to be amiable in the midst of happiness and success."

- Anne-Sophie Swetchine, mystic

Abigail Van Buren

"The best index to a person's character is a) how he treats people who can't do him any good and b) how he treats people who can't fight back."

- Abigail Van Buren, advice columnist

Alan Alda

"The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover is yourself."

- Alan Alda, actor

The Corrs

"And, who knows, I might feel better,
If I don't try and I don't hope."

- The Corrs, "What Can I Do?"

Oliver Goldsmith

"Our greatest glory consist not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."

- Oliver Goldsmith, writer and poet

Abraham Lincoln

"The best thing about the future is that it only comes one day at a time."

- Abraham Lincoln, former President of the USA

Lord Byron

“The heart will break, but broken live on.”

- Lord Byron, poet

Mabel Newcomber

"It is more important to know where you are going than to get there quickly. Do not mistake activity for achievement"

- Mabel Newcomber

Robert Frost

"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on"

- Robert Frost, poet

Nancy Astor

"No one sex can govern alone. I believe that one of the reasons why civilization has failed so lamentably is that it had one-sided government."

- Nancy Astor, first woman to sit as a Member of Parliament

Abraham Maslow

"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he to be ultimately at peace with himself. What a man can be, he must be."

- Abraham Maslow, psychologist

Anais Nin

"We don't see things as they are, we seem them as we are"

- Anais Nin, author

Oscar Hammerstein II

"Do you love me because I'm beautiful,
Or am I beautiful because you love me?"

- Oscar Hammerstein II, songwriter, producer, director

Albert Einstein

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

Dante

"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who in times of great moral crises maintain their neutrality"

- Dante, poet

Alice Sebold

"I live in a world where the two truths co-exist; where both hell and hope lie in the palm of my hand."

- 'Lucky' by Alice Sebold

Carolina Liar

"I once had a grip on everything, it feels better to let go."

- 'I'm Not Over' by Carolina Liar

Jane Addams

"Nothing can be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world."

- Jane Addams, activist

Elizabeth Stone

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."

- Elizabeth Stone,

Andre Gide

"The most decisive actions of our lives... are most often unconsidered actions"

- Andre Gide, author

Walter Lippman

"Where all think alike, no one thinks very much"

- Walter Lippman, writer, reporter

James Branch Cabell

"Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is"

- James Branch Cabell, author

Carl Sagan

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we get nowhere."

- Carl Sagan, astronomer

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"This is the true measure of love: When we belive that we alone can love, that no one could have ever loved so before us, and that no one will ever love in the same way after us."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, writer, philosopher and intellectual

OneRepublic

"I'll become what I can't be."

- OneRepublic, "Stop And Stare"

Robert Browning

"A minute's success pays the failure of years"

- Robert Browning, poet and playwright

Alexander Pope

"All nature is but art unknown to thee"

- Alexander Pope, poet

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"For 'tis not in mere death that men die most"

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet

Alfred Tennyson

"Dreams are true while they last and do we not live in dreams?"

- Alfred Tennyson, poet

Oscar Wilde

"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers."

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Frida Kahlo

"Feet, why do I need them if I have wings to fly?"

- Frida Kahlo, artist

Anais Nin

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."

- Anais Nin, author

Ayn Rand

"Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness."

- Ayn Rand, author

Jeannette Rankin

"You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake."

- Jeannette Rankin, first female member of Congress, pacifist

George Bernard Shaw

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them."

- George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic

John Henry Newman

"Let us take things as we find them: let us not attempt to distort them into what they are not. We cannot make facts. All our wishing cannot change them. We must use them."

- John Henry Newman, Roman priest and cardinal

William Shakespeare

"Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet

Confucius

"Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."

- Confucius, philosopher and social activist

Patrick Park

"We forget how strange it is just to be alive at all."

- Patrick Park, "Life Is A Song"

Robert Frost

"Happiness makes up in height what it lacks in length."

- Robert Frost, poet

Albert Einstein

"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

George Bernard Shaw

"The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed but that he cannot believe anyone else."

- George Bernard Shaw, playwright and critic

Oscar Wilde

"Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable."

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Douglas Adams

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I need to be"

- Douglas Adams, author and dramatist

Plato

"Death is not the worst that can happen to men"

- Plato, ancient Greek philosopher and author

Jane Austen

"Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?"

- Jane Austen, author

Ovid

"Dignity and love do not blend well, nor do they continue long together."

- Ovid, ancient Roman poet

Ronald Reagan

"People don't start wars, governments do."

- Ronald Reagan, former US president

Martin Luther King Jr.

"Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase."

- Martin Luther King Jr., social activist and reformer

Charles Du Bos

"The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become."

- Charles Du Bos, French critic

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A friend is one before whom I may think aloud."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist, philosopher and poet

Voltaire

"Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers."

- Voltaire, writer and philosopher

Cicero

"A mind without instruction can no more bear fruit than can a field, however fertile, without cultivation."

- Cicero, ancient Roman orator, politician and author

Aesop

"United we stand, divided we fall."

- Aesop, Greek slave and fable author

Eleanor Roosevelt

"If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault."

- Eleanor Roosevelt, US diplomat and reformer

Ingrid Michaelson

"All we can do is keep breathing"

- Ingrid Michaelson, 'Keep Breathing'

Friedrich Nietzsche

"Be careful when you fight the monsters, lest you become one."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

Confucius

"Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it."

- Confucius, philosopher and social activist

William Shakespeare

"Be great in act, as you have been in thought."

- William Shakespeare, playwright and poet

Anne-Sophie Swetchine

"To love deeply in one direction makes us more loving in all others."

- Anne-Sophie Swetchine, mystic

George MacDonald

"To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved."

- George MacDonald, author, poet and Christian minister

William James

"Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."

- William James, psychologist and philosopher

Tom Peters

"If you're not confused, you're not paying attention."

- Tom Peters, American writer, specialising in business management

Aeschylus

"Wisdom comes alone through suffering"

- Aeschylus, Greek playwright

Aristotle

"Hope is a waking dream"

- Aristotle, philosopher

Theodore Roosevelt

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

- Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the USA

Shout Out Louds

"I guess we never know what to become"

- Shout Out Louds, 'I Wish I Was Dead, Pt. 2'

Rollo May

"Courage is not the absence of despair; it is, rather, the capacity to move ahead in spite of despair."

– Rollo May, psychologist

Sydney J. Harris

"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?"

- Sydney J. Harris, journalist

Don McLean

"And in the streets the children screamed, the lovers cried and the poets dreamed. But not a word was spoken, the church bells all were broken."

- Don McLean, "American Pie"

Kahlil Gibran

"Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof."

- Kahlil Gibran, artist, poet, writer

Ralph Blum

"Nothing is predestined. The obstacles of your past can become the gateways that lead to new beginnings."

- Ralph Blum, author

Agatha Christie

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing,"

- Agatha Christie, author, playwright

Erica Jong

"Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't."

- Erica Jong, author

Mahatma Ghandi

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

- Mahatma Gandhi, activist, political and spiritual leader

Elizabeth George Speare

"The answer is in thy heart. Thee can always hear it, if thee listens for it."

- Elizabeth George Speare, author

Andy Warhol

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."

- Andy Warhol, artist

Kurt Cobain

"Wanting to be someone you're not is a waste of the person you are."

- Kurt Cobain, musician

Christian Morgenstern

"Home is not where you live, but where they understand you."

- Christian Morgenstern, author and poet

William M. Thackeray

"To love and win is the best thing. To love and lose, the next best."

- William M. Thackeray, author

Aeschylus

"Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times”

- Aeschylus, Greek playwright

Thomas Merton

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

- Thomas Merton, monk

James Joyce

“A man's errors are his portals of discovery.”

- James Joyce, author

Erin McCarley

"Love, save the empty
And save me."

- Erin McCarley, "Love, Save The Empty"

Maya Angelou

"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again."

- Maya Angelou, poet and author

Oscar Wilde

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.”

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Winston Churchill

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.”

- Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Britain

Abigail Van Buren

"People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes."

- Abigail van Buren, pseudonym of Pauline Phillips, advice columnist

Jules Verne

“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”

- Jules Verne, author

Emily Dickinson

"That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love."

- Emily Dickinson, poet

Lord Byron

“Love will find a way through paths where wolves fear to prey.”

- Lord Byron, poet

Joel Barker

“Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with Vision is making a positive difference.”

- Joel Barker, scholar and futurist

Paramore

"Why do we like to hurt so much?"

- Paramore, "That's What You Get"

Voltaire

“Prejudices are what fools use for reason.”

- Voltaire, writer and philosopher

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

"Whoso loves, believes the impossible."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet

Friedrich Nietzsche

“I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you”

- Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar, philosopher and developmental critic

Chuck Palahniuk

“The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it's only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.”

- Chuck Palahniuk, journalist, satirist and novelist.

Oscar Wilde

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”

- Oscar Wilde, poet, novelist, dramatist and critic

Don Byas

"You call it madness, but I call it love."

- Don Byas, musician

Charles R. Swindoll

"We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations."

- Charles R. Swindoll, American writer and clergyman

George Bernard Shaw

"You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, 'Why not?'”

- George Bernard Shaw, playwright, critic,

Percy Bysshe Shelley

"Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought."

- Percy Bysshe Shelley, poet

Demosthenes

"Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be true."


- Demosthenes, Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens

C.S. Lewis

"Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone."

- C.S. Lewis, author

Rumi

"Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded.
Someone sober will worry about events going badly.
Let the lover be."

- Rumi, 13th century poet, theologian, mystic

Barack Obama

"Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek."

- Barack Obama, president of the United States of America

Alice Sebold

"No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved"

- "Lucky" by Alice Sebold

Anais Nin

"Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."

- Anais Nin, author

Henry David Thoreau

"When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest."

- Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, development critic

Amelia Burr

"Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die."

- Amelia Burr, poet

Helen Keller

"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched ... but are felt in the heart."

- Helen Keller, author and activist

Viktor Frankl

"We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

- Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor

Jim Rohn

"The more you care, the stronger you can be."

- Jim Rohn, motivational speaker and author

Ivy Baker Priest

"The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be the beginning."

- Ivy Baker Priest, American politician

Robert Fulghum

"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge -- myth is more potent than history -- dreams are more powerful than facts -- hope always triumphs over experience -- laughter is the cure for grief -- love is stronger than death."

- Robert Fulghum, author

Audre Lorde

"When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid."

- Audre Lorde, poet and activist

Pierre August Renoir

"The pain passes, but the beauty remains."

- Pierre August Renoir, artist

Aeschylus

"There is no pain so great as the memory of joy in present pain"

- Aeschylus, Greek playwright (colloquially known as the "author of tragedy")

John Ruskin

"There is no wealth but life."

- John Ruskin, author, poet, social commentator

George Orwell

"To see what's in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle."

- George Orwell, author.

Robert F. Kennedy

"Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

- Robert F. Kennedy, American politician

Benjamin Franklin

"The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself."

- Benjamin Franklin

Florence + The Machine

"No dawn, no day, I'm always in this twilight, in the shadow of your heart"

- "Cosmic Love", by Florence + The Machine

Albert Einstein

"I never think about the future. It comes soon enough."

- Albert Einstein, physicist

Rebecca West

"I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute."

- Rebecca West, author, journalist, literary critic

Zelda Fitzgerald

"Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold"

- Zelda Fitzgerald, author

Thomas Edison

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

- Thomas Edison, inventor

Zora Neale Hurston

"Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place"

- Zora Neale Hurston, author

Albert Einstein

"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love"

- Albert Einstein, physicist